Tillamook Air Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tillamook Air Museum
Established 1992
Location Tillamook, Oregon, United States
Type Private: aerospace
Website TillamookAir.com

Tillamook Air Museum is an aviation museum located south of Tillamook, Oregon at Tillamook Airport . The museum is housed in a former military blimp hangar, called "Hangar B", which is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world.[1] Tillamook Air Museum has been described as "one of the country's top private World War II aircraft collections".[2]

Constructed by the US Navy in 1942 during World War II for Naval Air Station Tillamook, the hangar building housing the aircraft is 1,072 feet (327 m) long and 296 feet (90 m) wide, giving it over 6 acres (24,000 m2) of area. It stands at 192 feet (59 m) tall. The doors weigh 30 tons each and are 120 feet (37 m) tall. Hangar "B" is one of two that were built on the site originally, Hangar "A" was destroyed by fire in August,1992.[3][4]

A portion of the blimp hangar is now leased by the Hillsboro, Oregon-based American Blimp Corporation which is the largest manufacturer of blimps in the United States.

In April 2013, the museum announced that it was planning to move from Tillamook to Madras, Oregon, sometime before the end of its lease of the blimp hangar, which extends to January 2016.[5]

Aerial view of the museum hangar

Collections

The museum features a collection of over 30 aircraft. This is a listing of some of the more notable:

Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy
External shot of Hangar B
  • Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina
  • Douglas AD-4W Skyraider
  • Douglas A-26 Invader
  • Douglas A-4B Skyhawk
  • Douglas C-47 Skytrain
  • Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber
  • Fairchild GK-1
  • Grumman F-14A Tomcat
External shot of Hangar B showing doors
Interior shot of Tillamook Air Museum

The Museum also features an exhibit hall with a large collection of rare historical wartime and aviation artifacts including pieces of the great German airship the Hindenburg and a WWII Luftwaffe flight jacket.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Larsen, Jeff Short Trips: Slice of history and a wedge of cheese Seattle-PI 2002-03-21 retrieved 2008-04-24
  2. ↑ 10 great places to remember World War II USA Today 2004-06-04 retrieved 2008-04-24
  3. ↑ Tillamook Air Museum: Building
  4. ↑ U.S. Naval Air Station Dirigible Hangars
  5. ↑ Tobias, Lori (May 6, 2013 (print edition of May 7, p. 1)). "Future of Tillamook blimp hangar in question as air museum prepares to move". The Oregonian. Retrieved May 8, 2013. 

External links

Media related to Tillamook Air Museum at Wikimedia Commons

Lists relating to aviation
General
Military
Accidents/incidents
Records

Coordinates: 45°25′13″N 123°48′17″W / 45.420391°N 123.804835°W / 45.420391; -123.804835

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.